The escalation of tension in the northern provinces of Afghanistan with its possible movement to Central Asia presents an increasing threat to Russia and its allies

MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/. Moscow considers the actions by the USA and NATO, that scale down cooperation in Afghanistan, counter-productive while the situation in the country requires active measures to create the efficient army and economy, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Mogulov said on Friday.

“Such steps cause damage to our common goal - stabilisation of the situation ‘in the heart of Asia’. We’re working on to prevent the earlier planned events from wrecking,” he said.

The Russian high-ranking diplomat was speaking at the 4th ministerial meeting of the Istanbul Process on Regional Security and Cooperation for Secure and Stable Afghanistan.

The escalation of tension in the northern provinces of Afghanistan with its possible movement to Central Asia presents an increasing threat to Russia and its allies. “The signs are being fixed of the aggravation of the situation on the Afghan-Turkmen borderline,” he said.